In 1832 Henry Boddington joined the Strangeways Brewery in Manchester, UK, which had been founded by Thomas Caister and Thomas Fray in 1778. Henry quickly rose to a partnership in 1847 in the brewery, now called John Harrison & Co. He became sole proprietor of the business in 1853. Under his management and that of his successors from the Boddington family, the company became a major regional brewer, producing close to 560,000 barrels (650,000 hl) by 1985. The company largely grew organically, having purchased only three smaller brewers (Bridge Brewery in Burton, 1869; Hull’s Brewery, Preston, 1900; Isle of Man Brewery, ca 1907), until acquiring Richard Clarke & Co. of Stockport in 1962.

The Boddington family’s share holdings had fallen to about 40% in the 1930s, making the company a target for other brewers, and Allied Breweries made a bid in 1969. This was unsuccessful, fended off with help from the Whitbread Investment Company, who brought Boddington’s under their protective umbrella. See whitbread brewery. Boddington’s remained independent, buying up Oldham Brewery in 1982 and Higson’s of Liverpool in 1985. Their 280 pubs were a valuable prize and Whitbread took over the company in 1989. Whitbread took Boddington’s distinctive pale gold bitter cask-conditioned ale, famous for its high hop bitterness, nitrogenated it, made it somewhat bland, and turned it into a mass-market brand. In 2001 Whitbread sold its brewing business to the Belgian company Interbrew (later to become InBev, now Anheuser-Busch Inbev). See inbev. Boddington’s brewery was closed in 2005; only the brand lives on, as a part of the portfolio of the world’s largest brewer.